Water and the Future of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Water is central in the “world problematic”, linking food, energy, poverty, migration, conflict, and development within a deeply interconnected ecological system. The water crises affecting the Middle East and North Africa merge with geopolitical tensions, national ambitions, demographic pressures, and the technocratic planning that accompanied dam policies and agricultural expansion. Examples such as the Nile and the Tigris and Euphrates, Morocco, Ukraine, the African Green Wall, and major hydraulic projects in Ghana and Ethiopia show that technical solutions often exist, yet fail because of political inaction, economic interests, and the absence of genuine cooperation. There is a need for new forms of conservation, recycling, and water reuse — including wastewater recovery, ablution water reuse, drip irrigation, fog harvesting, and rainwater collection — in order to adapt societies to water scarcity. If governments continue to ignore the interdependence between environment, justice, and human survival, ecological disasters, mass migration, and conflicts over water may become the normal condition of the future world.